British comedian, Michael Palin, of Monty Python fame, attended the annual Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) 2017. It marks his first appearance at the Pakistani cultural event.

He participated in the festival by speaking at a session entitled “Not a Nice Man At All”. The session also featured celebrated Pakistani novelist, Kamila Shamsie.

LLF 2017 took place on 25th February 2017 at Faletti’s Hotel in the cultural city of Pakistan.

Receiving an invitation from LLF founder and CEO, Razi Ahmed, Michael Palin appeared delighted to attend the festival. Speaking to Geo News, he explained: “I visited Lahore about 15 years ago and I accepted the invitation from Razi because I really love the city and remember it really well.”

“I don’t know much about the festival as it’s my first day here. Being here now I have met some really wonderful people.

“Writers from all over the world have come here. Meeting local writers and local people has been a great process.”

Michael Palin arrived at Lahore on Friday 24th February 2017. It’s the first time the popular comedian has returned since visiting the country 15 years ago.

Beginning in 2013, the Lahore Literary Festival aims to showcase a wide range of talented Pakistani artists and writers. They achieved their goal this year by producing an impressive line-up.

As well as Michael Palin, other guests included Ahmed Rashid, Margaret MacMillan and Daniyal Mueenuddin.

Just before the event took place, LLF faced unfortunate changes to its duration. Originally designed as a three-day event, LLF was supposed to begin on the 24th February and end on the 26th February 2017. However, this was eventually cut down to just one day.

Organisers behind the event said the change happened due to the security situation in Lahore. However, despite sudden changes, the event was a triumphant success. And key guests were keen to point out the value of LLF.

Michael Palin said: “May this festival continue for as long as possible and people outside Lahore find it valuable to come here.”

After the success of Lahore Literary Festival 2017, DESIblitz hopes that 2018 sees a longer celebration of this critical cultural festival.